‘AIADMK charge against Congress over NEET baseless’

Tamil Nadu Congress Committee (TNCC) president K.S. Alagiri on Saturday said the AIADMK is making a baseless allegation that the UPA government was responsible for implementing NEET.

He pointed out that the decision taken by the Congress government in Puducherry to issue an order for implementing 10% reservation in medical education, forced the AIADMK government here to follow suit. “People won’t forget, the delay in decision making by the Governor,” he said.

Mr. Alagiri said while that was the fact, the AIADMK was blaming the Congress and DMK for NEET.

He also noted that when NEET legislation was passed in Parliament on August 5, 2016, the AIADMK which had 37 MPs in the Lok Sabha and 13 in the Rajya Sabha did not vote against it. While Jayalalithaa, the then Chief Minister, managed to get one year exemption from NEET, the current Chief Minister Edappadi Palaniswami has not been able to get further extension, Mr. Alagiri noted.

He also pointed out that it was comforting that 405 students from government schools had become eligible for MBBS and dental admission this year, when compared to only 6 seats last year. However, Mr. Alagiri noted that the education system in the State in the last 10 years has to be blamed for only 405 government students becoming eligible for medical admission out of the 3,400 seats.

The AIADMK government had to take the blame for failing to stop the BJP government from implementing NEET, he added.